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Latest Articles in Typography

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Published this month by Unit Editions, an independent press specializing in visual culture, "Spin: 360º" features projects from over 20 years of work by London-based studio Spin. Here are a few highlights from the impressive 520-page tome made for graphics lovers.

The recent fifth edition of Sofia Design Week in Bulgaria's capital city marked a milestone for this international festival devoted to design and visual culture from Eastern Europe and beyond. The theme for 2013 was 'The Balkan Date'—a fitting topic for a region brimming with innovative design ideas as well as cultural expressions that are innately complex. Sofia Design Week's curatorial team felt that is was vital for this year's program to encourage creative exchange between Balkan countries, as well as facilitate a more tangible global presence for regional contemporary design.
"When speaking of design on the Balkans, the usual reaction to the topic ranges from embarrassment to bewilderment to a smile. Until recently we were surprised at the growing interest of large-scale design platforms into the region. With its fifth edition, Sofia Design Week counteracts the skepticism and scant availability of information by putting you live in contact with the new wave of Balkan designers. Here and now, Bulgarians, Romanians, Turks, Greeks, Serbs, Kosovars, Slovenians, Albanians, Montenegrins, Croatians, Macedonians, Bosnians and Herzegovians are creating a surprisingly interesting, different and potentially characteristic design. " —Sofia Design Week curators/organizers

London-based Russian graphic designer Sonya Dyakova is making us rethink the notion of judging a book by its cover. After studying in San Francisco, the typography specialist moved to London to work for interdisciplinary graphic designer Vince Frost and Kerr | Noble, before joining visual art book publisher, Phaidon Press, in 2005 as design director. She now runs her own multidisciplinary studio, Atelier Dyakova, where she consistently churns out designs that are "strongly rooted in conceptual and tactile details, as well as typographic experimentation." Dyakova is also the art director of contemporary art and culture magazine, frieze (re-designed in May 2012) and Frieze Masters magazine. Dyakova is currently working on a catalogue raisonné for Ron Mueck to coincide with his new show at the Cartier Foundation in Paris and come late April, will host a 5-day workshop at the Ecole cantonale d'art de Lausanne for graphic design students. Click through to see a bevy of picks from Atelier Dyakova's portfolio.